According to CNN, the average person spends $130.97 on Valentine's Day alone, and what are they buying?  Flowers. Of the $18.6 billion dollars spent on V-Day, $1.9 billion of that is allotted to flowers. CNN also reports that 51% of people who are shopping on Valentine's Day buy red roses, and 61% of men who shop on Valentine's Day are buying all varieties of flowers.  

What makes flowers such a successful Valentine's Day gift? Maybe because CNN claims that 6 million people are expecting or planning a marriage proposal, and what better way to propose than with flowers?  Flowers are also popular because they are given in succession with other gifts such as jewelry and chocolate.  So, no matter what you do on February 14, flowers are always the icing on top of the cake that is Valentine's Day.

Read the full CNN article here! 

This year Friday February 14th is  is Valentine's Day.... So is that good or bad?

As a retailer, I always embrace every holiday with all of the possibilities they can provide. As we all know, the weekends are some of our most challenging times to have a floral holiday, such as Valentine's Day, with all of the obvious distractions pulling at the discretionary dollar the consumer may have. As a floral provider, we have found our best success by partnering with other businesses in our area; restaurants, jewelers, movie theatres etc. In addition, despite the consumer becoming more and more last minute and looking for immediate results, we are still promoting early delivery.

With early orders placed and accepting delivery on or before February 12th the client receives not just a mylar balloon, and small heart box of chocolates for FREE, but they also get a 10% increase of flowers in their design. FREE still gets attention and when you say we can also give you a VIP 10% floral enhancement they really have a hard time saying no. This moves our deliveries to earlier in the week, with many of them going to offices, and this is exactly what we want! This also creates a buzz around the office and, before you know it, more orders start rolling in to some of the same offices. In addition, with all of the early deliveries you, as a retailer, have the opportunity to spend the necessary time with your walk in clients! Who, by the way, are future deliveries - when greeted with professionalism and outstanding Rio Roses product!

Our focus in selling is always directed at what result the sender is looking to get. When selling, we ask, "what results are you looking to achieve?" When we get them thinking about that, the budget generally becomes unimportant. Customers today are willing to spend more than we give them credit. Knowing that rose prices are higher at the Valentine holiday, we offer several other alternatives, but all of them include some roses -it is the flower of the day!  In addition to our dozen, two dozen and three dozen rose vases, we also offer roses and lilies, sunflowers, and roses and assorted garden mix with roses. Featuring other selections to promote assorted color roses allows you to provide color motif designs. Citrus, Neon, Vintage muted and, of course, monochromatic bouquets are always popular as well.  In an effort to meet our clients' needs and have a smooth running "no overtime" holiday we streamline our selections to manage production much easier.  

No sale is concluded without the suggestions of some finishing touches of gourmet chocolates, balloons or plush animals. These simple suggestions can attribute to an additional 20% in sales when presented in a "must-have" tone of voice.

What all retailers must realize is that the results we have for the holiday are directly related to good planning, quality product from Rio Roses, and a well-trained positive staff. It's not brain surgery, it's flowers! 

Enjoy, because we work in a wonderful industry!